I wrote recently about FBI Special Agent Gamal Abdel-Hafiz, documenting how he "could have a key role helping America's premier anti-terrorist force protect the United States from harm. But evidence from high-profile terrorism cases suggests that Abdel-Hafiz, an immigrant Muslim, twice refused on principle to tape-record his coreligionists, harming the investigations." The most notable piece of evidence was his statement, "A Muslim does not record another Muslim."
According to the Dallas Morning News, Abdel-Hafiz is being investigated not for any of the problems discussed in that article but because "a bitter ex-wife ... suddenly became willing to spill what she called the truth about an old burglary and stolen gold chandeliers." (April 20, 2003)
Jan. 18, 2004 update: Steve McGonigle, the Dallas Morning News ace reporter, offers Abdel-Hafiz' take on what happened and his article contains much of interest. Note, for example, Abdel-Hafiz' comment that he and a FBI colleague took off for the week-long hajj in Mecca not to fulfill religious obligations but for work reasons ("All our contacts are there, and we meet with them and we talk to them. You sit and you talk, and you just shoot the breeze while there is no pressure for work, and they tell you a lot of things that they normally don't say").
Of special importance, however, is Abdel-Hafiz' explanation of the "a Muslim does not record another Muslim" remark. McGonigle reports it this way: Abdel-Hafiz
did not deny saying to the Chicago agent that "a Muslim does not record another Muslim." But he said he was discussing a common perception in the Muslim community, not his personal belief. Taping the witness, Mr. Abdel-Hafiz said, was unnecessary and could have destroyed his credibility with other investigative sources if it became known. He said his bosses in Dallas concurred with his decision to refuse to do the taping.
Assuming this account to be accurate, it has two striking implications. First, a Muslim FBI agent cannot investigate other Muslims or this would "destroy his credibility" with them, whatever that means. Second, the FBI brass goes along with this foolishness. Both points leave me feeling more worried than ever about the FBI under Robert Mueller (whose mistakes in judgment I have written about here and here). (January 18, 2004)
Feb. 25, 2004 update: Newsweek reports today that, in an unusual move, the FBI brass overruled the bureau's top disciplinary officer and ordered Abdel-Hafiz reinstated, despite allegations that he had been involved in a case of insurance fraud and then lied about it to FBI investigators. FBI watchers are reduced to rolling their eyes at another one of Director Mueller's mistakes; what will the price of his poor judgment be this time?
Feb. 26, 2004 update: A Chicago Tribune follow-up story today offers an interesting justification of the "Muslim does not record another Muslim" remark (quoted in the Jan. 18 entry): "Abdel-Hafiz and FBI officials in Washington have maintained that his supervisor at the time determined he had already gotten the necessary information from a suspect and conducting a second interview with a hidden recorder would have jeopardized his position." This, of course, is quite at variance with the explanation in the Dallas Morning News over a month ago, cited two entries above.
Speaking of the Dallas Morning News, its article on Abdel-Hafiz today includes this statement by him, presumably directed to his soon-to-be-again-FBI colleagues: "Some people will [be welcoming] and some people won't. And the people who won't, I will not have any mercy on them. I will have no mercy on anyone who will try to cross me again."
"Texas' very own and the 1st Muslim ever to be promoted by the FBI to Special Agent - Gamal Abdel-Hafiz sharing some of his thoughts with the audience in this post-9/11 environment."
Sep. 10, 2004 update: It is very distressing to find Abdel-Hafiz addressing the Freedom and Justice Foundation – note the accompanying picture, complete with the original F&J caption – alongside such Islamists as Salam Al-Marayati and the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations' Houston office, Iesa Galloway.
Dec. 9, 2005 update: Paul Sperry connects Abdel-Hafiz to the unexpected acquittal of Sami Al-Arian of terrorism charges, providing new details on the first Muslim FBI agent's soft spot for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader – how Abdel-Hafiz provided him with information on Steven Emerson, denigrated a fellow FBI agent who was investigating Al-Arian, met with subjects of investigations without informing his superiors, and generally "showed a pattern of pro-Islamist behavior."
As a result, Sperry writes, "Al-Arian even bragged to Abdel-Hafiz that the Tampa office did not have a strong case against him—thanks in large part to Abdel-Hafiz." Sperry raises the issue of whether Abdel-Hafiz has jeopardized the massive Safa case.
Jan. 4, 2015 update: After nearly a decade of silence about Gamal Abdel-Hafiz – what was he up to during that period? – we now learn that he's been in administrative Siberia since 2012. In an article sympathetic to Abdel-Hafiz, Eric Schmitt writes in the New York Times, about something called the Post-Adjudication Risk Management plan (PARM) which, in his words, the FBI subjects
hundreds of its employees who were born overseas or have relatives or friends there to an aggressive internal surveillance program that started after Sept. 11, 2001, to prevent foreign spies from coercing newly hired linguists but that has been greatly expanded since then. ¬ Employees in the program … face more frequent security interviews, polygraph tests, scrutiny of personal travel, and reviews of, in particular, electronic communications and files downloaded from databases. … All F.B.I. personnel with access to classified information are subject to periodic polygraph tests and other internal security measures, but some PARM participants say they face unfair scrutiny.
Then Abdel-Hafiz enters the picture:
"This program was good for the new hires after 9/11, but for it to be used against current employees, some with 10 or 15 years' experience and who have proved themselves, is unacceptable," said Gamal Abdel-Hafiz, an Egyptian-born agent in Dallas who joined the F.B.I. in 1994 as a linguist and was put in the program without warning in 2012. He said he no longer received all the top-secret information he needed to carry out his job. Others in the program said it was harder to get choice undercover or overseas assignments.
"If you're in this program, it affects you from moving up," said Bobby Devadoss, a Dallas lawyer who represents Mr. Abdel-Hafiz and some West Coast F.B.I. agents in the program. "You could be a superstar agent, but if you're in this box, you're in the box."
FBI's Chief Spokesman Michael P. Kortan states that the agency "seeks to protect sensitive and classified national information while taking into account any impact on an employee. Inclusion in the program does not affect career advancement opportunities, and factors contributing to the risk assessment are periodically reviewed." Abdel-Hafiz disagrees:
Mr. Abdel-Hafiz, who was born in Cairo, became a United States citizen in 1990. Four years later, the F.B.I. hired him as an Arabic linguist, and he helped translate the video and audiotapes of Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, the Egyptian-born militant Islamist convicted after the 1993 World Trade Center attack of plotting to bomb several New York City landmarks. After becoming an agent, Mr. Abdel-Hafiz was assigned to the F.B.I.'s office in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and helped investigate Al Qaeda's attack in 2000 against the guided-missile destroyer Cole in Aden, Yemen.
But Mr. Abdel-Hafiz has also clashed with colleagues and superiors. He filed a religious-discrimination complaint in 1999 against another agent who accused him of placing his Muslim faith before his loyalty to the F.B.I., impeding counterterrorism inquiries, a charge he strongly denied.
Mr. Abdel-Hafiz said he was placed in the PARM program in early 2012. He believes the action was retaliation for his testifying in support of a fellow agent's grievance, and then filing a formal complaint of his own when, he said, F.B.I. lawyers pressured him not to get involved in the other agent's matter. F.B.I. officials declined to discuss any specific cases.
"The security officer said it was because of my foreign travel, foreign contacts with family members in Egypt, but it's been five and a half years since I was in Egypt," said Mr. Abdel-Hafiz, who is 56 and plans to retire later this year.
When James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director, held an agents-only meeting in Dallas in August, Mr. Abdel-Hafiz confronted him about the program, which Mr. Comey said he was unaware of, two law enforcement officials said. Mr. Kortan, the F.B.I. spokesman, said a response to Mr. Abdel-Hafiz's questions was in the works.
Comments: (1) Note the delicate way Schmitt alludes to the 1999 issue, something I went into in detail in my original article on Abdel-Hafiz. (2) Glad to know Abdel-Hafiz is being carefully watched, at last.
